Orange County Public Schools is expanding -- digitally.
When classes begin on Monday, more than 30,000 students will receive a school-issued laptop computer as part of the Digital Classroom Initiative.
The initiative started about four years with just a handful of schools. This year students at 19 schools will get the laptops. The district chose the schools based on their current technical capabilities. Eventually all students will get these laptops.
The program costs nearly $28 million. The tough, military-grade computers are strong enough to keep up with active students and advanced enough to bring 21st century learning to the classroom.
Teachers will be able to link all the classroom computers through Wi-Fi and deliver the day’s interactive lesson on everyone’s computer at the same time.
“You can go straight to a student that doesn’t understand and they don’t have to wait until tomorrow or next week to get their results back," said math coach Mario Medley. "They know immediately what they don’t understand and you can fix the problem right there. But it also saves you time so you can spend your time coming up with creative lessons.”
Tests can also be delivered through the computers while instructors monitor the students from a handheld device. For parents, it's a big change from when they went to school.
“You have to spend a lot of time running to the library. You could get distracted going over there," said parent Arthur Johnson. "Sometimes you don’t make it. If you have all those things at your fingertips you can pull up Google or any other interactive media that you need. It just speeds up the learning process.”
Students will be responsible for the computers at school and at home. They will have to return the laptops at the end of the year. A firewall will keep students from accessing inappropriate content at school, but parents will need to set up their own firewalls at home. Each parent will get a complete guide to the new program when school starts.
Current schools:
- Apopka High School
- Audubon Park Elementary School
- Colonial High School
- Corner Lake Middle School
- East River High School
- Evans High School
- Freedom High School
- Hunter's Creek Middle School
- Liberty Middle School
- Millennia Elementary School
- Oak Ridge High School
- Ocoee High School
- Pinewood Elementary School
- Southwest Middle School
- South Creek Middle School
- West Orange High School
- Wetherbee Elementary School
- Windermere Elementary School